Luke 22: 31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. 32 But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.”
on wednesday mornings I listen in on a prayer call from someone very near and dear to me... and this is the scripture she used one morning... as she was reading it I was thinking...
satan has to ASK permission to sift us... yet he is granted it....
while I am not thrilled about that idea... I know at the gym.. if I never raise the weight I lift or the resistance on my bike.. then I never get any stronger... I stay stagnant... so the enemy is given permission to try us... because if we stay in the same place.. doing the same things.. then we don't grow... we become stagnant...
but Jesus has pleaded in prayer for us...
how awesome is that.. the idea that Jesus is in the heavens pleading for us in prayer... the pleading part is exceptional.. but even the realization that He is praying for me is more than I can imagine...
He is praying that our faith does not fail...
I think that is to mean.. that even though we mess up.. we fall.. we hurt Christ's feelings.. we sin... we deny Him... at the end of it... we will still have faith... our faith will not totally give out on us... that is a struggle I have been having over the past few months... I had been ready to completely give up on everything... but at the bottom of that... I still believe in God.. I still believe in Jesus.. I still know I am saved... so while my endurance might seem to fail... my faith does not... at the end of the rope.. there is a knot of knowing who God is.. that keeps me hanging on.....
WHEN we have repented and returned again to Him... we are to strengthen others...
not if we repent.. not will we repent... but WHEN.. meaning it is a sure thing... that we will repent and return to Him...
then we are to strengthen others... that the purpose of our own mistakes can be used to strengthen someone else and possibly keep them from making the same mistakes as us... and that is a good thing... sometimes I wish I could learn more from others rather than having to go through everything on my own...
thank you Jesus for praying for me... for believing in me.. for keeping my faith when I am not sure I can....
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